Eight Students Evacuated from Residence Halls until Further Notice Following Flooding

Eight Loyola students were sent a notice from Residence Life on Tuesday to evacuate from four double rooms in Marquette Hall and Marquette South Hall due to flooding.

The evacuations took place two days after a storm overwhelmed drainage systems and water flooded in-unit bathrooms. In an email obtained by The Phoenix, Residence Life asked students to relocate to temporary housing in San Francisco Hall by 10:00 p.m on Wednesday, Sept. 5.

Temporary housing refers to lounges converted into student living spaces in residence halls. In an email from Residence Life, students were advised to take everything they will need for around 10 days with them.

Deb Schmidt-Rogers, assistant vice president and director of residence life,said temporary housing units were already set up due to the anticipation of another large first-year class, but were not used.

“After facilities investigated the damage, they have determined that parts of your apartment will need carpeting and dry wall removed and replaced,” the email said. “This work needs to proceed as soon as possible and you will need to be relocated while the work is being completed.”

Kana Henning, associate vice president for facilities, said the water affecting the residence halls was not unsanitary.

“We believe we had one location where there was unsanitary water and that was being handled differently. I don’t believe it was in a residence hall,” Henning said.

Henning didn’t specify where she believed the unsanitary water was.

Schmidt-Rogers said she can’t guarantee students will be reimbursed for all damage.

“There is the possibility of reimbursement, I don’t ever want to say to any student that we will reimburse them 100 percent for everything,” Schmidt-Rogers said. “Most of these issues came through our drainage system, so some of the damage began in bathrooms. So it might be items that were damaged in bathrooms as a result of the flooding.

Schmidt-Rogers said she didn’t know of any personal property damage reports at the time of publication.

Since students weren’t able to be placed into temporary housing with a kitchen, they were provided $100 in Rambler Bucks to supplement their meal plans.

Henning said staff is still in the process of drying out the rooms. The date students will be able to move back to their original apartments hasn’t been determined, according to Henning.